Electric cars have been of interest for several decades, due to their energy efficiency, environmental friendliness, and performance benefits. Thus, electric powered vehicles convert about 59-62% of the energy taken from the power grid to power at the wheels, as compared to about 17-21% for their internal combustion engine counterparts. Electric vehicles also emit no pollutants, and provide quite, smooth operation and stronger acceleration, and require less maintenance, than vehicles powered by internal combustion engines. Moreover, since electricity is a domestic power source, the use of electric cars helps to reduce dependence on foreign energy resources.
More recently, the continuing development of battery technology (especially the development of rechargeable lithium ion batteries having relatively high energy densities) has begun to close the gap between cost and performance aspects of electrical cars and their internal combustion engine counterparts. Consequently, most of the major automobile manufacturers, as well as some recent start-ups, have introduced lines of electric powered vehicles. Examples include the VOLT® electric vehicle produced by Chevrolet, the LEAF® electric vehicle produced by Nissan Motors, the i-MiEV® electric vehicle produced by Mitsubishi, the Tesla ROADSTER® electric vehicle produced by Tesla Motors, the FORTWO® electric drive vehicle produced by Smart Automobile (a division of Daimler AG), and the e2o® produced by Mahindra Reva Electric Vehicles.